Fighting malnutrition with education and food security among Panama’s indigenous population

Improving nutrition contributes to productivity, economic development, and poverty reduction by improving human capacity, cognitive development, school performance, and health by reducing disease and mortality. Poor nutrition perpetuates the cycle of poverty and malnutrition through three main routes— direct losses in productivity from poor physical status and losses caused by disease linked with malnutrition; indirect losses from poor cognitive development and losses in schooling; and losses caused by increased health care costs. The economic costs of malnutrition are very high—several billion dollars a year in terms of lost gross domestic product (GDP). Relying on markets and economic growth alone means it will take more than a generation to solve the problem. But specific investments can accelerate improvement, especially programs for micronutrient fortification and supplementation and community-based growth promotion. The economic returns of investing in such programs are very high.

There is a strong correlation between poverty and child malnutrition in Panama. Over 16 percent of all children under five (close to 50,000) suffer from some form of malnutrition. About 85 percent of these are poor. Close to one quarter of poor children and one-third of the extreme poor under five are malnourished, compared with 4 percent among the non-poor. The incidence of malnutrition mirrors the geographic and ethnic patterns of poverty, with one-half of all children in indigenous areas suffering from malnutrition and the highest incidence among the Ngobe-Buglé.

In 2013, the MIF approved a grant of US$500,000 to support a project in Panama that seeks to prevent childhood malnutrition through education and the production of food crops in family gardens that can be sold at certain points of sale such as restaurants and local bakeries, with a view to improving the incomes of poor indigenous families and guaranteeing that the nutritional impact will be sustainable. In this way, access to nutritional health was improved in a sustainable manner by building the productive capacities of the project beneficiaries.

Nutre Hogar is the Panamanian NGO responsible for this project totaling more than US$800,000, increasing access to nutritional services for more than 600 indigenous families, by improving their nutritional habits and sustainable production. A partnership with restaurants and other local businesses facilitated the sale and distribution of food products.

The project has increased the capacity of indigenous families, particularly women, as well as the adoption of healthy nutritional practices, and has had a substantial impact on the community. It also provided training, technical assistance, and advisory support so that the families developed skills and increased their motivation, creativity, and self-esteem in the adoption of nutritional practices as well as in the production of food, both for personal consumption and for sale to others. The foods grown in the family gardens are sold to restaurants and local bakeries, and have increased household incomes while guaranteeing on the indigenous families food security.

The children range from newborn to five years of age. Some are in very bad shape when they reach Nutre Hogar’s treatment centers, severely malnourished and weak. They are fed and treated and their families are educated in how to feed the children and the communities are trained in small scale agriculture for food security and sale of proceeds. The project has signed an Agreement with Ministry of Agricultural Development, which guarantees the continuation and scale up of the model beyond its completion. Nutre Hogar is also looking to replicate the model in other areas of Panama, as well as a possible formulating the public policy on nutrition from the model.

The family entrepreneurs have gained monthly profits and have recently opened their first bank accounts in the Banco Nacional. A survey showed that the mothers feel empowered when they are able to contribute to the family income and thereby a better quality of life at home. A group of women in the village on Kankinktu have recently opened a bakery called “Amor” with monthly sales of $700.

The main challenge of the project is to achieve a balance between the consumption and the sales of the products from the home gardens.